Craig T. Owens

In answering questions that have been submitted for The Q Series, I noticed a recurring trend: How much of our “conventional thought” in church circles is not revelation, but speculation.

Yesterday I had some tough questions on Heaven, Hell, suicide, our resurrected bodies, the after-life, and so on. In answering these questions, I used many passages from the Bible, but I also quoted from Charles Spurgeon, Charles Dickens, and C.S. Lewis. There’s nothing wrong, per se, with quoting from extra-biblical sources, but we have to be very careful what we do with those.

I once heard renowned evangelist C.M. Ward say something like this:

“The Word of God is completely good; you can devour all of it. But reading anything else is like eating chicken. There is some meat that’s good, and there are some bones, and gristle, and fat that you should spit out. Be very careful of what you take in, unless it is the pure Word of God.”

The Bible reveals so much for our lives, and we put ourselves in a place God can bless us when we are obedient to the revelation of His Word. But we put ourselves on shaky ground when we live by speculation of what we think may be truth.

The Apostle Peter said it this way:

For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it [to do so — it never came by human impulse], but men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21 AMP)

So whether you are looking for an answer yourself—or you are asking someone for an answer—make sure you are getting revelation from God’s Word, and not the speculation of man’s opinion.

Check out other questions in our Q Series by clicking here.